Monday, June 23, 2014

A walk through times of colour and freedom

Arja Salafranca, Bongani Nkosi and Loyiso Sidimba reflect on the meaning of democracy and the events that shaped their social outlook.

It’s late Saturday afternoon in a house in Pretoria last
month. I’m talking to an Indian woman married to a white woman. Together they
have adopted a mixed-race baby, who at this moment is heading towards the
sparkling blue pool, intent on splashing in it, even though autumn has started
its slow creep towards winter.

“It has allowed me to have the family I have.”

The woman’s simple statement cuts through all talk and
all reflection, philosophy becomes mute and falls away – it brings it all to
the foreground. A gay couple who have adopted a child – the perfect poster
children for Mandela’s vision. Is there anything more left to say? The sun’s
shining, we’ve tucked into melktert and rooibos tea....Read more here

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About Me

My debut collection of short stories, The Thin Line, was published by Modjaji Books, in 2010. My first poetry collection, A life stripped of illusions, received the 1994 Sanlam Award for poetry, while a short story, ‘Couple on the Beach’ was a winner of the same award in 1999 for short fiction. My second collection of poetry, The fire in which we burn, was published by Dye Hard Press in 2000. An anthology of prose and poetry, Glass Jars Among Trees, which I co-edited with Alan Finlay, was published by Jacana Media in 2003. My poetry is also collected in Isis X (Botsotso, 2005). I edited the anthology The Edge of Things: South African Short Fiction, published by Dye Hard Press in 2011. I am editor of the Life supplement in the Johannesburg-based The Sunday Independent.